The famous, relentless chords with which the piano imposes itself on the orchestra received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky’s desired pianist, who saw them as an intolerable insult to tradition. The concert was thus dedicated to Hans von Bülow, who first performed it in Boston in 1875. It will be re-proposed here by a top-class pianist like Thibaudet, who will merge its romantic rhapsodic impetus with crystal-clear sound. Equally elegant and intimately expressive is Leningrad-born Semyon Bychkov, globally appreciated for a conducting style that constantly refreshes the sense of absolute tonal and structural novelty of Berlioz’s impressive symphonic poem.